YMMV / FAITH: The Unholy Trinity

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • How much of Amy's evil actions while possessed can be attributed to the demon and how much to her?
  • Just how unreliable of a narrator is John? His written account of Amy's first exorcism contains an Immediate Self-Contradiction on her location, his flashback of the exorcism contains an odd bit of Multiple-Choice Past depending on the player's action, there is a Time Skip-like sequence in Faith I where the situation goes from John being ambushed by an invisible Amy in the basement to John being upstairs on the bed and fending her off, John hallucinates on multiple occasions, the Vatican not being able to confirm his identity as a priest, he abducted and locked away Amy during the events of Faith I, which we do not see during the game, and he believes the twins are real when they're just mannequins. However, Garcia and Lisa confirm many of his beliefs.
  • Tiffany claims that she was the first person to willingly perform the Second Death ritual on herself, which ended up turning her into the Rejected Vessel. However, Miriam was clearly a willing vessel, and she had the ritual done long before Tiffany. Was Tiffany not aware of Miriam? Was she boastfully lying? Was Miriam not as devoted when the ritual was performed? Alternatively, is Tiffany's explanation more literal in the sense that she actually did the ritual upon herself whereas other cultists did the ritual to Miriam? Does the Second Death ritual require an unwilling victim to make the hell portal, as Amy and John, should Gary capture him in battle are unwilling and are successful, and that is why Tiffany is rejected? Alternatively, is the ritual exceedingly specific in the number of sacrifices, and Tiffany doing too many caused it to fail?
  • Chapter Two discusses pieces of lore that John shouldn't really have known. Even if he was one of the surviving orphans, he wouldn't have known about the old priest, the private detective, or the true monstrous form of Sister Bell. Were these fevered visions of his addled mind? Was he desperately trying to put a story to the horrors he witnessed? Or is God granting him visions to help him prepare for what he must face?
• Arc Fatigue: The final portions of Chapter III are easily the single longest sequence of content in the entire game on their own. There's a lot of enemies, multiple puzzles, several bosses, and if you're on the path to the Golden Ending, even more story and fighting to do. Death being around every other corner can also undo puzzle progression much more frequently than anywhere else in the game, making it a pain if you slip up even once. It's best to take a break before committing to this portion if you had been playing the chapters back-to-back.
• Awesome Art: In contrast to the games' simplistic Atari-style gameplay, the cutscenes are shockingly detailed and fluidly animated.
• Awesome Music:
  • The main theme. Uplifting, swelling, and a wonderful reward for getting the Golden Ending.
  • The 8-bit-crushed rendition of Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight" is an iconic piece that plays throughout the game. It sets a perfect tone for the game.
  • Super Miriam, the theme of the True Final Boss of chapter 3. An intense, Doom-esque track for an intense fight, fitting for the Antichrist, his predecessor as the high priest of Satan, and a demon king backed against the wall by sheer faith in the Lord.
• Bizarro Episode: Chapter II is by far the most surreal entry of the trilogy due to being All Just a Dream.
• Complete Monster:
  • Gary Miller is the inhuman leader of the Eternal Order of the Second Death who desires to summon forth The UNSPEAKABLE and bring about Hell on Earth. Under Gary's leadership, the Order takes over an abortion clinic, transforming unborn children into horrifying abominations and getting several people killed in the process. They also regularly summon dangerous demons who butcher numerous people, and murdered several children at a daycare. At the clinic, Gary met Amy Martin and tried to use her to summon The UNSPEAKABLE, mutilating her and sacrificing infants as part of the ritual. When priest John Ward stops the ritual and tries to stop the cult, Gary attempts to repeat the ritual with Ward's best friend. Gary also mistreats his followers, twisting them into inhuman monsters, breaking the fingers of those who displease him, and causing many to be killed by demons. When Ward arrives at his lair, Gary slaughters several cops and attempts to summon The UNSPEAKABLE through Ward, a process which involved chemically Mind Raping Ward and causing him to rip apart several cultists in the process.
  • The UNSPEAKABLE is the demon worshiped by the Eternal Order of the Second Death. Said to be The Antichrist, the Order's ultimate goal is to summon the UNSPEAKABLE through a twisted ritual of mutilation and infanticide. In its name, the Order has committed Human Sacrifice, and summoned murderous demons for decades. When Amy Martin was chosen as a vessel for the UNSPEAKABLE, it possessed her and gruesomely murdered her parents and Father Allred and tormented John Ward. Depending on John's actions, the UNSPEAKABLE either drags Gary to hell for failing it, or is successfully summoned and drags John to a realm of eternal torment while the UNSPEAKABLE brings destruction and chaos to the world.
  • Chapters II & III: Sister Miriam Bell is a member of the Eternal Order of the Second Death and the mother of Gary Miller. Years ago Miriam gave herself the Second Death, turning herself into a portal to hell and having dozens of infants sacrificed to the portal, resulting in the appearance of Gary. Miriam later volunteered at a church that was housing orphans, eventually "consuming" six of the children, murdering a nun, and driving a priest to madness and death. Miriam is also implied to be behind the deaths of several children in the church's past. Miriam eventually tried to summon the UNSPEAKABLE through herself, knowing that its appearance would being chaos and death to the world.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Getting smushed by the Airdorf truck. There's even an achievement for doing it in all three chapters.
  • In Chapter III, John being shot down by cops because they mistake his cross for a gun? Tragic. Getting to watch the entire police squad fire on John's corpse for nearly two seconds before the MORTIS screen? Hilarious overkill.
  • Also from Chapter III, a few notes by the Eternal Order can be morbidly amusing. Like in the apartment after a rant about their doctrine, then berating members who haven't been paying their apartment rent. Better yet when you learn from another note that Gary has been skipping paying his rent.
  • The Second Death ritual involves making a portal to Hell out of someone's face and feeding living babies through it to summon demons. This is how Gary was brought into the world, and this is what he seeks to do to as many people as possible. But then Tiffany shows up, gets jealous of Gary's favoritism toward Amy, and decides to perform this ritual on herself. Not only that, but instead of using seven babies, she elects to prove her devotion by using "seventy times seven", or 490. Even Gary — who, in case you forgot, is the demon Astaroth — is taken aback by just how far Tiffany has gone, thanking John for getting rid of her.
• Even Better Sequel:
  • The original FAITH was a nifty horror game, if short and simple, with two (actually three) enemies, two small-ish areas (the forest and the house) and straightforward gameplay. FAITH: Chapter II ups the ante by several margins, with many more areas, puzzles, enemies with specific strategies, and more depth to the narrative.
  • FAITH: Chapter III also pushed the envelope pretty much in every way; with a much greater assortment of enemies, bosses, puzzles, and three distinct levels with their own feel and theme, covered in a ton of secrets. The story, with a greater emphasis on plot, characters, and a final culmination of everything that was built up in the previous chapters, has also been praised heavily.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "John FAITH/John Priest" for Father John Ward. This nickname stems from Vinesauce Vinny's playthrough of the game, as he has a tendency to call every male protagonist "John Title Drop".
  • "Purple Girl" for Amy Martin, for obvious reasons.
  • "THX Demon" for the secret mirror boss in Part III, due to the loud "VRRRM" noise it makes.
  • "Squid Game" for the Cultist in Act III that forces you to play Red Light, Green Light with them.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • One of the bad endings of Chapter I is shooting a mysterious gray figure you can't interact with, which causes Michael to show up in the car and kill John. Who or what could this figure be? Father Garcia, who explicitly is tracking Michael after the Chapter II prologue and yet was mysteriously absent in the first chapter as an active character, and the story details in the note for getting this ending even sets up his opening. It also explains why he knows to contact John in Chapter III — he saw him put an end to Michael.
  • After Chapter II was all about Dreaming of Things to Come, John keeps having repeated dreams of his failure to exorcise Amy throughout Chapter III as a way to start off each part of the story. It's because Amy is implied to have been locked up in that room down his hall that's covered with crosses, so whether by spiritual awareness or the demon taunting him remotely, he's having repeating nightmares of his experiences involved with her.
  • A certain riddle near the end of Chapter III gives you hints about how to find the Secret Bosses and reach the Golden Ending:
    • "A riddle, priest. How do you make a portal to Hell?": It references the final location of the game, whose entrance is normally blocked by a barrier. The rest of the riddle is about how to open the passage, aka "make a portal".
    • "Sometimes, it waits for the one who has already walked through it." In Day 1, you must backtrack a bit downstairs, get on a gurney again and wait by the left door. Also, the boss is the "Mother", and the riddle references the fact that John has "already walked through" being born.
    • "Sometimes, it opens itself in the deepest, darkest room where nobody can find it." In Day 2, you must find a way to access the secret floor in the Dark World. Also, the "it opens itself" part references how Tiffany willingly performed the Second Death — a ritual meant to open a portal to Hell — on herself.
    • "And sometimes, it comes walking right up to you." In Day 3, the Unholy Spirit can suddenly attack you while you're exploring. The boss itself references John's stay in a mental hospital after the events of the failed exorcism, where he met Amy, a possession victim and a candidate for the Second Death.
• Fridge Horror:
  • The story tries to not show its hand entirely, but the implications the latter two chapters have go a long way in implying that far too much of the local region is under the thrall of the Eternal Order of the Second Death, judging by them being behind every other corner or bad happening. And they seem to know everything John and Garcia are doing...
  • With the reveal that Mrs. Martin miscarried and was actually pretending to have twin sons the whole time, Amy's volunteering at Gary's clinic gains new meaning. Was she there in an attempt to help her mother, only to fall into the wrong crowd and got taken advantage of?
    • Expanding on this revelation, remember the letter from the beginning of Part I that Mrs. Martin sent to her husband? Was she the one playing with the deer carcass instead of the twins?
  • The Arc Words of Gary being "a normal human being, just like you and me" makes a lot of sense realizing it's said in real-time exclusively by people who are being influenced by Gary and his demonic cohorts; They see themselves as what humanity should be, and seem to see something particularly special in John. For the normal rank and file, however, it's quite simply a 2 + Torture = 5 situation; If you can believe Gary is a normal human being, you'll believe anything.
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of this game tend to also like World of Horror and vice versa, due to them both being survival horror games set in The '80s with a retro computer game aesthetic. The respective devs seem to be aware of this, if World of Horror receiving its own Badass Preacher in an update is any indication.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The series contains many references to The Bible, and many characters recite scriptures (specifically from the King James Version).
  • Michael gets a few of these. "CORRUPTION THOU ART MY FATHER" references Job 17:14, and "I HAVE THE BODY OF A PIG" is a reference to Matthew 8:28-34. Being that Michael is never exorcised no matter what ending you get, even after three months with the experienced exorcism skills of Father Garcia, it's a clue that dealing with him means Death Is the Only Option because, however he got it, the demon in him has permission to be there.
    • "I HAVE THE BODY OF A PIG" may instead be a direct reference to this video from YouTube channel Devin Raymond, which in turn could be a reference to Matthew 8:28-34.
  • Father Garcia's prayer at the end of Chapter II is abridged from Psalm 91.
  • During the battle against Super Miriam, when John is hit, he will pray to God and survive up to ten hits before dying. The first prayer is "My God, take this cup from me...", a reference to Luke 22:42. The last prayer is "How often we forget... Faith without works is..." This is a reference to James 2:26, especially since taking the next hit leads to MORTIS; James 2:26 in full is "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
• Memetic Badass: Father Garcia is considered this by the fandom and even Airdorf themselves, thanks to the Chapter III teaser trailer having a stinger where he does a Dramatic Shotgun Pump. It only increased once the full game released. It's taken even further in this video, which combines his badass status with a particularly memorable copypasta.
• Memetic Mutation: The game's use of Apple II S.A.M. for voiced dialogue is quite striking when mixed with its writing. Certain lines are considered quite memorable by fans.
  • MORTIS ^ExplanationThis is what the Game Over screen says after you die. And you will die a lot. It also helps that it's very unique for a game over screen.
    • It's MORTIS Time!/I'm gonna MORTIS! ^ExplanationDue to the similar spelling of MORTIS and MORBIUS, fans have started to make parodies of the "IT'S MORBIN' TIME" meme leading up to chapter three's release.
  • "What I am about to do has not been approved by the Vatican."^ExplanationA line from John that has stuck with the fandom, usually used as either a Badass Boast or a declaration that they're going to do something that's definitely not going to be approved by the Vatican.
  • "RAIN OF SPIDERS!" ^Explanation During the first final battle of Chapter III, the final boss has an attack where he summons a literal rain of spiders to attack John. And he always says this line whenever he uses it, and he uses it a lot.
  • Smooth moves, priest.^ExplanationOne of the notes you obtain after slaying a Optional Boss in Chapter III has Gary taunt John with this line.
• Narm:
  • The text-to-speech is intentionally supposed to be eerie and horrifying by making even the normal human characters (limited though they are) sound unnatural. Usually it achieves its effect. Sometimes it just comes off as a bit over-the-top, however, and dilutes the horror. This is especially apparent with Michael's profane rants, and one of his fleeing lines as, "I GO UNWILLINGLY," either intending to be a solemn reminder of his Demonic Possession, or a very passive-aggressive attempt at his displeasure of the cross.
  • Father Garcia's run animation at the end of the Chapter II prologue makes it look like he's dancing. In the same chapter, the tree that suddenly gets up and flees, although this could be taken as a much-needed moment of levity from the unending horrors.
  • Gary shouting "RAIN OF SPIDERS!" and summoning a dozen of giant spiders from the sky. It's so sudden and silly it makes the fight impossible to take seriously, especially if he uses it multiple times in a row.
  • The Cameo of V1 on a child's drawing in Chapter III is a bit of an immersion breaker, especially considering it happens near the end of the game. Considering Ultrakill's memetic nature, it can easily take a good chunk of the dark atmosphere of the level away, and it doesn't help that the text-to-speech program used for this game is the same one used for V1's voice.
• Narm Charm: When you finally meet Gary Miller, the Ambiguously Human leader of the Order of the Second Death, he pulls back his hood to reveal that the ominous white eyes of his are actually some ridiculous Cool Shades he wears under his cultist attire. At first it completely breaks the tension of the climactic confrontation with the Big Bad of the game, but then he twists his face into a worse and worse Nightmare Face with each question you ask him, until the glasses are partially covered by his own melting flesh before he suddenly snaps back to normal. This makes it clear that the glasses are really just there to help him pass off as a normal human being, just like you and me.
• Offending the Creator's Own: Some Christians accuse the game's themes of Satanism and the occult of being blasphemous. Aside from Satanism being portrayed in-game exclusively in a negative light, Airdorf himself is Christian and his responses to the claims are that he believes "if God is to be acknowledged, then it is just as fair to acknowledge the Devil as well."
• Pop Culture Holiday: September 21st is "Faith Day", which was the day of John Ward and Father Allred's failed exorcism of Amy Martin in 1986 and a year later is the night Chapter I takes place.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The fact that you can't move while holding the cross is something that gets very annoying as the chapters go on, especially when you have to use it against multiple enemies or enemies that can damage sponge through it.
  • The instant deaths most enemies and bosses give where even them spawning next to John can lead to an unexpected MORTIS. Combine this and the games having a bit of a Checkpoint Starvation problem, and it can be very frustrating. Ironically, the two times this doesn't apply are the Final Boss in Chapter 3 (Gary, which just knocks the cross out of John's hand and lets him do a last second attempt to get it back, with recovering it even freezing the boss in place for a moment) or the True Final Boss against the Fusion Dance of Gary and Malphas, where John has a lot of extra hits he can take.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The final bad ending in III can be summed up as this. Initiated by John not dealing with the demonic menace in the hospital, the Profane Sabbath comes to pass and it ends the world. He tries to ask Amy why everything like this is happening to him and how he just wants the nightmares to end. Amy condemns him as "UNFORGIVABLE" and transports him to the Martin Residence, now wrecked beyond repair. He continually blames himself for what happened, wishing he never stepped into the house or that things went differently, while despairing music plays in the background. In the end, all he can do is fall to his knees while being held in place by Amy and Michael, two kids who couldn't be saved as he's finally taken by the Unspeakable.
  • The final kicker to the above? When it ends, the house is simply gone and a final game over screen appears in the same font as MORTIS: DAMNATIO MEMORIAE, which is then followed by the name of the final ending, Ending III: The New Vessel. In Christian terms, Damnatio Memoriae means a "condemnation of memory" akin to Unperson where a person or event is stricken from all official records. Given how much John stated that he can't handle the nightmares and wants everything to end, the Unspeakable gives it to him in a sense: by making it so he no longer exists to suffer as he uses him as a new vessel.
• That One Attack: The first two phases of the True Final Boss would not be nearly as difficult if not for the pentagram seals that Gary randomly spawns throughout the arena. Although they cannot hurt you, they can block you from moving through them, appear just about everywhere, and tend to pop up in your path, often trapping you with Gary and making it harder to dodge Malphas and his arrows. The third and final phase is easier in part because it doesn't spawn these.
• That One Achievement: "Good Christian Boy" requires you to beat the game on Marathon Mode (which takes you through all 3 chapters at once instead of being accessed individually), while getting the Golden Ending for each chapter. Without dying. Given you are a One-Hit-Point Wonder, just how many traps and ways to die there are, the fact that one Golden Ending requires you to complete an Escort Mission, and how tricky and RNG-heavy some of the bosses can be, especially the True Final Boss, the task is so difficult that many players who get every other achievement simply don't bother.
• That One Level: Garyland, the home base of the Eternal Order of the Second Death in Chapter III, is long compared to the rest of the game, with a lot of treading back and forth figuring out what to do, and a lot of MORTIS to go around for sequences bordering on Trial-and-Error Gameplay. Expect to have to redo puzzles, fights, and bosses frequently as the enemies become faster and more aggressive and ratchet the game through a Difficulty Spike.

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